April 11, 2023. More single white blossoms. Here are two cultivars that are often confused, and another that could cause some confusion were it more common. ‘Somei-yoshino’ is not so common in Vancouver, but it’s the most popular cherry in Japan and is the one planted at the tidal basin in Washington, DC and at the Quad at the University of Washington in Seattle. The single white flowers are not more than 3 cm across and hang on sparsely hairy stems.
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Very popular in Vancouver are ‘Akebono’, with several block-long plantings forming an arch over the street. This tree is in the same species as ‘Somei-yoshino’ (Yedoensis). The flowers are slightly larger than ‘Somei-yoshino’, are more pink at peak bloom, and their stems are less hairy. Some flowers exhibit an extra small petal in the centre, which is never the case for the other two cultivars featured here.
‘Umineko’ or ‘Snow Goose’ are separately named cultivars with the same parents. We’re pretty sure no-one can tell them apart. These trees start upright; the branches eventually spread out but curve back inward at the tips. The flowers are smaller than the cherries shown above, are pure white with petals so round that they overlap to form large stars. Starting now, leaves will appear with the flowers.
April 9, 2023. It was several years before our Cherry Scouts found ‘Afterglow’ trees. They were all listed as ‘Akebono’, and indeed they are a different cultivar of the same Prunus yedoensis species, and they bloom at roughly the same time. They have a similar habit (shape), but the flowers are smaller and much more pink. The petals are round enough to overlap. Thanks to Anne Eng for this photo.
Douglas Justice, Associate Director, Horticulture & Collections at UBC Botanical Garden, and Wendy Cutler, VCBF Cherry Scout Co-ordinator, have begun following the blooming progress of these trees; Douglas will report the “official” peak bloom date for this location for this year.
‘Akebono’ cherries in Maple Grove Park, buds not more than starting to open on March 16. Photos by Wendy Cutler.‘Akebono’ cherries in Maple Grove Park, pink buds are evident on March 21. Photos on this date by Wendy Cutler.One of the three large trees at Maple Grove Park. There is a fourth younger tree in this group; the bloom date of the flowers on that tree are not being considered for the competition.‘Akebono’ cherries in Maple Grove Park, pink buds are evident on March 21.Two days later, March 23, cooler than 10C degrees and partly rainy. Still, there is some reddening of the overall tree colour with advancing bud development.March 23 – Some buds have started to swell, but others not yet. Pedicels (flower stems) are starting to be visible, are less than 1cm.March 23 – These are the only open flowers on any of the trees.Another two days have elapsed, but not much development has occurred. These are still the only open flowers. The weather was better, but a little below 10C degrees.March 23, it’s hard to judge the the overall colour compared to what it was when the weather was so dreary two days ago.March 23, more of the pedicels were approaching 1 cm.
Here are photos from Douglas Justice taken on March 27. I think the first one features the same two flower clusters as just above. It was below 10C degrees in the intervening days, and little progress has been made.
Douglas Justice’s March 29 photos show a little more blooming progression, and another area with some open flowers. These two days had temperatures a few degrees above 10C.
April 4 – the advancement in blooming is noticeable now in Douglas Justice’s photos compared with three days ago. It’s been cold (below 10C degrees) but progress is now inexorable.
April 7 – surely far more than half these flowers are open. Our spec for “peak bloom” is 70% open. Douglas Justice has now called it – peak bloom on April 7. Wendy Cutler got to photograph them.
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A sunny moment on the trees complete changes the colour in photos. This is the same photoshoot as the previous photo.
April 6, 2023. We have not yet featured ‘Pandora’, an early season bloomer with white flowers. The petals on these are almost twice as long as they are wide, so they do not overlap. That is a distinctive feature on these goblet-shaped trees. Thanks to Anne Eng for this photo.
April 3, 2023. In the previous posting, we have featured single white blossoms that can be seen around town now, or coming soon. You can find the most recent posting at Yesterday’s news – single white flowers – Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival (vcbf.ca). Today we feature two similar weeping trees, one a white one not shown yesterday, and the other the same species but a pink cultivar that we have featured here before. Thanks to Shirley Willard for both photos.
Both these trees with a pendulous (weeping) shape have the botanical name Prunusitosakura Pendula Group. This does not seem to be a registered cultivar, so we are calling it ito-zakura, meaning thread cherry, as it is known in Japan. It is not all that common in the wild, but it is available from landscaping suppliers in white or light pink.
We think ‘Fudan-zakura’ cherries start blooming in late winter – we only knew one location and haven’t been able to follow it much. But a cherry scout has just convinced us that a group of trees in Arbutus Ridge, unidentifed since 2007, are this cultivar. This photo, though, was taken by Shirley Willard at the tree in Hastings-Sunrise that we’ve known for several years.
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These Little Twist® flowers, photographed by new Cherry Scout Marg Kitso in Langdale, may look similar to the ones above, but the trees look very, well, twisty. This is also found by the name ‘Kojo-no-mai’, which means “flight of the butterflies”.
Anne Eng photographed the ‘Snofozam’ flowers below at VanDusen Botanical Garden. Again, similar flowers to the ones above, but on very weeping trees.
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Just opening now are ‘Sendai-shidare’, another weeping tree that we have trouble distinguishing from ‘Snofozam’ pictured above. They look very different here. Maybe these two photos will help us; particularly notice the long narrow sepals below, the emerging leaves, and the greener calyces. This photo is from Shirley Willard, taken in the West End.
March 29, 2023. Yesterday we featured quite small single pink ‘Okame’ flowers, notable for their red calyx tubes and red stamens (You can find this posting in the blog at Yesterday’s news – ‘Okame’ – Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival (vcbf.ca)). Here are single pink blossoms from four more cultivars that are in bloom around town now.
‘Whitcomb’ cherries have been out for a while, are a widely-planted early-blooming cherry and have been featured here before. Anne Eng photographed these at VanDusen Botanical Garden, where the micro-climate is cooler than most places in and around Vancouver, so they are still looking fresh.
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Tan Yong Hui photographed these rare-to-the-area ‘Shosar’ blossoms at Minoru and Landsdowne in Richmond. The shape and colour of the calyx tube helps to distinguish these cultivars from each other.
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Here is ‘Beni-shidare’, photo from Gibsons by Shirley Willard. The name means “pink weeping”, which pretty much gives it away – single pink flowers on drooping branches. Locally, the esthetic seems to be to prune these heavily so you can see under them, but they are most beautiful when the branches are allowed to cascade to the ground. These are popular landscape trees, and there is a large collection of them at VanDusen Botanical Garden.
The ‘Stellata’ or Star Cherry’s distinctive characteristic are the rolled edges of the flowers, making them look like little stars. These also have red calyces, making the trees seem more noticeably red than they are. Once the flowers open, they are a very pale pinky-white. Tan Yong Hui took this photo of flowers emerging at Vanier Park.
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March 28, 2023. ‘Okame’ flowers in Tsawwassen are looking excellent. The trees themselves are not much to write home about, but the colour is exciting and the flowers are little gems.
March 24, 2023. Double (or semi-double) flowered ‘Accolade’ cherries are starting to look good around town. These flowers have more than five petals. They are more than twice the diameter of the earlier-blooming ‘Autumnalis Rosea’, and they form a tidier flatter disk. Shirley Willard took this photo at Vancouver City Hall on March 19.
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For a comparison, here are ‘Autumnalis Rosea’ flowers from March 11. This is the only other cherry cultivar in bloom right now with more than 5 petals. Well, sometimes you can find an extra petal on ‘Whitcomb’ blossoms, but that is rare. Thanks again to Shirley Willard for the photo.
March 21, 2023. ‘Whitcomb’ cherries still look good in the West End, but now the rest of the area gets to enjoy them. Josie Tonio McCarthy found this tree on Fader Street in New Westminster where our map already has three other later-blooming cultivars.
